So my soap shipment from TSD arrived today, two old favorites, Iced Sub-Zero and Coconut Lime Verbena. Now there was a time that I almost exclusively used TSD soaps and while I liked some better than others, I can't honestly say I ever purchased a bad soap there. In a company full of good soaps the aforementioned two were head and shoulders above their contemporaries. Iced Sub-Zero is the 50 Cal Barrett of menthol shaving soaps and Coconut Lime Verbena has this nice tropical smell too it that (especially when followed up with a healthy splash of Clubman Bay Rum) can't be beat. I have less than zero concerns about the quality and performance of either soap. In fact, I can't wait for the Saturday post-PT shave tomorrow.

All that said however, I did have an issue. As has been documented on this very site, I'm a cheap bastar...uh I mean...frugal gentleman so when shopping for soaps if re-fills are available I'll generally get the refills and run them over a cheese grater and put them in one of my recycled TSD soap jars (I have several.) This cuts down not only on purchase price but sometimes shipping costs as plain pucks of soap, wrapped in paper, tend to be lighter than the same puck of soap and a factory plastic or porcelain container. Now, when I buy, say a refil of Mitchell's Wool Fat, I totally understand and expect it not to fit in a TSD Soap Jar. The need to grate the puck is understood and factored in at the onset, no problem. HOWEVER, it seems to me that if TSD is going to market something as "a refill" it makes sense to me that the puck of soap would fit nicely into one of my old TSD jars and the whole thing would be plug and play. Not so, as I discovered just this evening. I pulled a couple old jars from under the cabinet in the Shave Cave, gave them a good all over douche and when I unwrapped the refill and put it in the jar there seemed to be a bunch more jar than there was soap and the puck freely rolled around the jar with a quarter to an eighth of an inch of gap all the way around between the soap and the wall of the jar. This is by far NOT a show stopper as I will simply pull out my cheese grater and load the jars with shavings (same as I do MWF or VDH Deluxe) but seems like a refill from the same company would not have needed to be grated. Am I nitpicking here? If you think I'm a whinny little ingrate feel free to ask me if I'd like some cheese with my wine. I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot that I'd probably join that chorus. What do you think? Tempest in a teapot? Or should refills be plug and play? It's been a good few years since I've done any business with TSD so the possibility does exist that their jars have shrunk in size.